Ginger Orsi
4-Song EP
Homemade DIY CD
Reviewed by Kent Manthie
Los Angeles has spawned another singer-cum-actress. Jazz chanteuse, Ginger Orsi has just made a four-song EP in a very DIY way – a CD-R that was mailed to as many publications, e-zines as possible with the idea of getting exposure. She has a MySpace page (www.MySpace.com/gingerorsi), where you can read all about her favorite things and such.
What surprised me the most was Ginger’s style. She’s a hard-core jazz singer. The first cut opens up the disc and is the equivalent of getting your mind blown. One expects a pack of sugary pop-songs, a la STAR Radio, you know, the top 40 ghettos, etc. But it’s a wonderful splash in the face of cool water to hear this lovely and talented Ginger Orsi and her penetrating voice that is like a siren’s song, one that draws in unsuspecting listeners, but they won’t end up on any rocks this time, unless you’re out driving your speedboat around, listening to the CD and get distracted by this enchantress run your ass into a sandbar or shoals. Oops!
Anyway, Ms. Orsi seems, from her MySpace page, to be primed and ready for fame to take over. But that could be where the problem lay. As the ancient maxim goes, “Be careful watch you wish for – you just might get it!” so have gone many a name and a face into the limelight and almost as quickly gone again only to resurface years later on some VH-1 show about has-been and “where are they now?” types of titillating featurettes on show-biz casualties.
That’s not at all to say that Ms. Orsi will ever end up the way of Flava Flav or Erik Estrada – jokes that even they’re in on. She has the potential to go a lot farther and not have to be making her own CD-R demos anymore. Here’s hoping that some un-myopic indie guy will spot her and get her a recording gig with no strings attached (that means complete control and ownership of her own music, so stay away from those pasty-faced goons from the Major Labels (Warner’s octopus-like stranglehold on music, with the lion’s share of labels – Warner Bros, Sire, Atlantic, Elektra, Asylum, Interscope and much more; then there’s EMI, Bertelsmann and Sony Music (Columbia, Epic, Slash(?), etc. All those guys are into is maximizing their shareholders dividends and their principal, of course. Innovation and highbrow art with esoteric references in the lyrics and too much irony can cause mass confusion to these guys.
My advice would be to spread your wings, take off and tour, tour, tour, let yourself be seen and get a word-of-mouth cult following and soon enough you’ll get called – but don’t take the first or even the second offer – go with an indie label and make sure that you get all the money that’s coming to you as well as complete control in the studio. You’re future fans will dig that, Ginger! - KM.